Review for Midterm

 ADVICE

Use the study guide! (at tab above)

OVERVIEW

1. Module 1 -- moral status of animals --Aristotle, Bible, Singer, Regan, Carruthers
2. Module 2 -- animal minds, animal deaths -- pain, pleasure, morality, self-awareness, time travel, death -- Yong, Balcombe, DeWaal, McMahan
3. Module 3 -- animals and society -- Donaldson & Kymlicka (D&K)

BASICS

1. What is meant by "moral status" and "moral standing"?
2. What is an animalist? Why are these all animalists: Singer, Regan, D&K
3. The non-animalists: Bible, Aristotle, Kant, Carruthers
4. What is sentience? What is a "subject of a life"?
5. What are "marginal cases"?
6. What's the difference between saying animals are our equals (Singer) and saying they have rights (Regan)?
7. What is Utilitarianism? 
8. What is Contractualism? 
9. Other basics?

TRICKY TOPICS

1. Aristotle & Bible: mixed views, they defend meat-eating but not cruelty
2. Kant: I have no duties to animals but I should be kind to my old dog. Is this contradictory?
3. Singer: principle of equality vs. Utilitarianism
4. Regan: argument for rights
5. Carruthers: why marginal cases do have rights but animals don't.
6. Carruthers: Astrid the astronaut
7. Animal minds: nociception, feeling of pain, time travel, episodic memory, rudimentary morality
8. McMahan: "time relative interest in continuing to live" & 8 reasons why humans have stronger TRICL
9. D&K: political categories, not mental categories; equal basic rights
10. D&K: the rights and responsibilities of animal citizens (no simple human-> animal extension)
11. Others?

Debate 3

 Announcements

1. Use the midterm review guide above!
2. Please think about what you want to review on Wednesday--we'll spend the whole class reviewing.
3. Want to ask more questions? 
• Come to office hours after class Wednesday (2-2:30)
• Stay after class today and make an appoint if that time doesn't work.
4. Fair group--still need 2 to attend the rodeo at the fair.

Debate workbook

Where cats and dogs belong

The status quo

• D&K p. 126
• pets are private property and/or children
• they should be considered "animal citizens" and should have access to public places

Dallas pet laws

• "loose" cats and dogs not permitted
• exception: registered feral cat colony (SMU has one!)
• Operation Kindness--better to keep cat entirely indoors 
• have to be spayed/neutered (with exceptions)

What would D&K's proposal look like?

• Istanbul, Turkey (15 million people, most populous city in Europe)
• Cat movie: Kedi (0-18, 48:20-56:26) -- at amazon prime and elsewhere
• Dog movie: Stray

The Istanbul model

• cats not "mine" in the sense of property or a child
• they are at liberty to come and go
• they are not feral--they are tame and cared for (food, vet care)
• current controversy--President Erdogan proposes banning stray dogs

More issues

• cats eating mice, rats, rabbits, swallows (denizens)
• cats eating birds (wild sovereigns)
• What might D&K say?
• Some other perspectives (for outside cats and against)

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More places where animals have more access to public spaces

Sheep in England

Nat Geo article about cows in India

NYT article about animal cafes in South Korea

Animal citizens (and denizens and wild sovereigns)

Coming up

• Friday 10/11: background for debate, midterm guide available
• Monday 10/14: debate
• Wednesday 10/16: review for midterm
• Friday 10/18: midterm
• Monday  10/21: Module 4, using animals for food, research, etc.
• Friday 10/25: first field trip discussion (vegan restaurants, whole foods)
• Monday 11/13: Module 5, wild animals 

Field trips 

Canvas page

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Putting animals in political categories

recap

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Animal citizens--first class members of our community

Which animals?  All the domesticated animals--dogs cats, farm animals (there will be vastly fewer farm animals)

Why are they citizens?

1. We brought them here, we made them dependent on us, they can't live separately
2. Domesticated animals are capable of cooperation and interaction
3. If it was wrong to make dogs and cats dependent, should we just set them free or let them go extinct?  (Gary Francione--we will discuss in module 4)

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What are the rights and responsibilities of animal citizens? (p. 5)

Rights

1. 
   

1. No voting for animals, no passports
2. "Equal protection of the law (and hence criminalization of harms to them)"
3. Emergency services (rescue from fire, floods)
4. They should "benefit from public spending (e.g.health care)"
5. Should "have their "interests weighed in the design of public space and institutions" (e.g. dog parks, "relief" facilities at airports)
6. Should have access to public spaces

• restaurants? (Paris, below)
• animal cafes? (South Korea)
• cats of istanbul
• cows of India

Possible debate topic: Should pets in the US have more access to public space, as in other countries?

• Next time: background about access to public space in other countries plus other relevant issues

Responsibilities of animal citizens

1. They should be socialized to live in a mixed community--no "jumping, biting, barking, defecating" (p. 6)
2. They should do non-exploitative work

• contribute manure YES
• goats mowing lawn YES
• sheep for wool if shorn humanely   YES
• keeping chickens for eggs MAYBE
• using animals as guide dogs (video clip) NO

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Wild animal sovereigns

1. Don't exist because of us, competent to take care of themselves
   
2. Overlapping borders--some wild animal sovereigns are inside the US
3. Wild sovereigns have the basic rights all animals have – so no hunting, trapping
4. Not citizens or denizens
• no right to be rescued after a disaster
• no right to be in our public spaces (polar bear jail in Churchill, Canada)

5. We should respect their sovereignty, competence
• should avoid invading habitat, but when you do take away habitat, create wildlife corridors
• shouldn't alter their way of life even if it seems protective
• one-off assistance ok

Module 5: wild animals in wilderness. We will discuss this and other views on how to treat wildlife.

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Liminal animal denizens

1. Two principles that apply to human denizens (p. 14)
• Principle #1: legit to have borders and laws about who enters; also legit to discourage entry
• Principle #2: "sooner or later they acquire the right to stay" (p. 14)
2. Application to aiminal animal denizens
• Principle #1: we can try to keep them out
• Principle #2: "we need to regularize their status, and to accept and accommodate to their presence" (p. 14) 
3. Example of mice
1. try to keep out: plug holes in walls to keep mice out, avoid open food, use humane traps and remove
2. accept and accommodate: what's wrong with a few in the cellar or garage or garden shed?

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Debate topics 

Possible debate question: Are all animals equal or do they fall into importantly different political categories, as D&K say?

Possible debate question: Should pets in the US have more access to public space, as in other countries?

Animal Categories

Announcements:

1. This class is cancelled Friday 10/4
2. No SMU classes Monday 10/7

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Module 3: Animals and society

Sue Donaldson & Will Kymlicka, Zoopolis: A Political Theory of Animal Rights (2011)

• "zoopolis" means animal city

Individualistic animal ethics--our obligations to animals depend on each individual animal's "intrinsic moral standing" (D&K p. 1).

1. Peter Singer--Does this individual have interests? If so they count equally--based on the seriousness of the interest, not the identity of the interest-owner.
2. Tom Regan--is this animal a subject of a life, with inherent value and rights? (AR theory)

Political approach to animal ethics

1. Intrinsic moral standing does matter--they support AR theory
2. But political status matters too--our obligations depend partly on an animal's relationship to our political community

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Political status, starting with the human case

Picture people who get off a plane

Passport control at DFW
international terminal

They all have  the same rights based on "intrinsic moral standing" (p. 1) – enshrined in Universal Declaration of Human Rights 

1. right to life
2. right to liberty
3. we can't torture or enslave any of them!

They hae different rights based on "relationship to a particular political community" (p. 2)

1. Citizens of the US
• right to enter the US
• right to work here
• right to have their interests represented by government
• right to vote
• right to have access to public spaces (can go there, signs are in your language)
• right to emergency health care
2. In-betweens: "tourists, foreign students, refugee claimants, business visitors or temporary workers" (p. 2). Other in-betweens: undocumented immigrants 
• have all the rights based on "intrinsic moral standing" 
• don't have all of the rights of citizens, but have some
• lose some rights they had in home country 
3. Foreign Nationals--citizens of other countries, living elsewhere
• have set of rights established in other nation

What should we do about the problems of Xs?  Need to know whether the Xs are citizens in-betweens, or foreign nationals.

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D&K say animals are in parallel categories 

1. Animal Citizens -- domesticated animals living with us---we created them, made then helpless and dependent--they are suited to close relationships with us---cats and dogs, farm animals
2. Animal Denizens  -- animals drawn to us but not living with us--not helpless and dependent, not close because we made them that way--squirrels, rats, mice, raccoons, ducks, geese, chimney swifts, swallows
3. Animal wild sovereigns --  live independently in wilderness (inside our borders or outside)--competent to take care of themselves

Note: D&K's political categories are NOT mental capacity based.  They don't subscribe to this kind of hierarchical view:

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Brother Wolf Animal Rescue,
Ashville North Carolina

Application 1: What should we do for animals after/before a natural disaster (Hurricanes Helene, Milton)

1. D&K--should consider interests and rights BUT ALSO political category
• Is it a stray dog--basically a member of our community?
• Is it a mouse, raccoon or swallow--dependent because of its own choices?
• Is it an eagle--competent to take care of itself?
2. Singer--equal interests should receive equal consideration
3. Regan--rights are equal

Possible debate question: Are all animals equal or do they fall into importantly different political categories, as D&K say?

Debate 2

 Announcements:

1. Reminder: no class on Friday Oct 4.
2. Next time: starting Module 3. Do all animals have the same moral status or do animals fall into different moral categories?  If there are categories, what are they based on?

DEBATE DOC

Animal death

Killing animals vs. killing humans

Jeff McMahan, The Ethics of Killling

Why now? 

• Because his argument involves some of the issues about animal minds we've been discussing. 
• He paints a picture of animal life that we should examine.

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Background

To get extraneous issues out of the way, let's focus on--

• Killing humans for no good reason
• Killing animals for no good reason

We need examples for each

• Murdering a human being
• Example of killing an animal for no good reason

Why are both wrong? Is one more wrong than the other?

McMahan says:

• both are wrong
• but killing the human is a worse wrong 
• he's not saying killing an animal is minimally wrong (p.199)
• this is a common belief even among people who care about animals (p. 199)

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McMahan's argument that killing humans is the greater wrong

1. What makes killing wrong is primarily* that being killed violates the victim's time-relative interest in continuing to live. 
• a "time relative interest" is simply an interest you have at a particular time
• before lunch your "time relative interest" in eating is greater than after lunch
• Maggie Smith just died at 89--her "time relative interest" in continuing to live was different than if she had died at 45
2. Interests in continuing to live have differing strengths.
3. Generally animals have a weaker interest in continuing to live compared to humans.
4. So, generally killing animals is wrong, but not as wrong as killing humans.

Main job of the reading: to support premise 3

*primarily--other things that add to wrongness are whether victim consents, killer's intentions, etc.

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Making comparisons

• we can compare human and animal deaths
• we can also compare different human deaths
• he's not saying laws should be based on this!

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First four reasons why humans usually have a greater interest in living

1. greater quality of future days (p. 195)

HUMANS VS. ANIMALS (p. 195)

• the pure joy of animals, p. 195-6 (McMahan's response?)

2. greater quantity of future days (p. 196)

• thoughts?

3.  a good thing in a human life "has been and continues to be desired when it occurs" (p. 197)

• for animals, good things "tend to arrive unbidden and indeed unanticipated" (p. 197)
• humans: try to have children, want them when they arrive
• animals: just have offspring

4. good things in human lives can be deserved, which adds to the good (p. 197)

• deserving things "presupposes responsibility and animals are not responsible" (p. 197)

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Fifth & sixth reasons: human deaths can be interruptive

5. human deaths can be interruptive, leaving a project or narrative incomplete (p. 198-199)

HUMANS (p. 197)

ANIMALS (p. 197)

• animals don't have projects or narratives
• animal deaths never leave incompleness, aren't tragic
• any apparent animal projects (e.g. squirrels hoarding nuts)--just instinctive, no conscious goal

6. a human's death can retroactively affect the meaning of earlier activities (p. 197)

HUMANS (p. 198)

ANIMALS (p. 198)

ANIMALS (p. 198)

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Two more reasons why humans usually have a greater interest in continuing to live

7. a human's lifespan can be short compared to peer lifespans (p. 198)

•  these peer comparisons don't matter for animals

8. humans often care about the doings of their later selves because of "psychological continuity" (p. 198-199)

• animals dont have this sort of psychological continuity with their later selves

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Possible debate topics

Do humans usually have a stronger interest in continuing to live than animals?

Are animal deaths ever tragic, leaving the animal's life incomplete?

Does McMahan paint an accurate picture of animal life and death?

Self-awareness

Recap: goals of module 2

• Our moral status authors made many claims about animal minds
• We are checking their claims against the evidence from animal science
• We are also getting to know animals better and learning how scientists study animals
• Next in module 2: is it worse to kill humans than to kill animals?
• Friday: will read Jeff McMahan who says yes--draws on many claims about human minds vs. animal minds
• Monday: we'll have a debate about this 

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Some claims of our module 1 authors on time travel and self-awareness

Peter Singer, Animal Liberation Now p. 25

Immanuel Kant, Lectures on Ethics AWT p. 6

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Peter Singer's argument

1. It may be worse to kill those with plans for the future.
2. Normal humans can plan for the future but animals can't.
3. Therefore, it may be worse to kill normal humans.

Last time: animals do plan for the future: chimpanzees, crows, cheetahs, etc.

What might Singer say in response?

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Self-awareness

Both Singer and Kant say animals don't have it

DeWaal says animals have it to varying degrees? Would Singer and Kant be impressed?

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The mirror test (DeWaal p. 241-243)

• what is it the "visual mark test"?

DeWaal: The mirror test can be passed to different degrees

• complete fail--small songbirds and fighting fish--treat the image like it's someone else
• intermediate--dogs and cats who don't react much to image instead of fighting with it
• intermediate--animals fail the mark test but can use mirrors as a tool 

Using mirror as a tool

• complete pass--elephants--Inside the animal mind episode 3, 32:44-36:40)

DeWaal: Why the mirror test isn't the only test of self-awareness

• Many forms of self-awareness
• dogs recognize own urine
  

• bats and dolphins recognize their own echoes
• animals treat own body differently than other bodies
• animals control their own cursor on a computer screen
• people examine their lives, beliefs, preferences

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Observations

Nut (Chyler)

Cute dog (Krista)

Bo video** (Sophie)

Cheetah, gorilla, baboon, cheetah (Brenna)

Truffle video** (Hannah)

My dog (Lily)

St. Bernard - blink test (Bella H)

Horse  Another (:42 Hailie)

Pavlov (Dylan)

Yowling cat (Chris) (!!!)

Sophie video** (Grace)

French Bulldog (Morgan)

Nemo** (Elle)

My dog (Jamaya)

Bird and dog (Bella P.) (!!!)

Kitten video** (Annabelle)

2 dogs (Sarah)

Friend's cat (Brianna)

My dog (Jacob)

Friend's cat (Iso)

Cat alarmed (Jack)

Other

Cat, pass????!!!!

Watch here

 Dog, ultra-cute dachshund puppy

Cat fascinated with reflection

Cats, mark test

 

Cats, complete fail, with fun soundtrack!

 

Rooster

Trapped in the present?

AN ALLEGED HUMAN/ANIMAL DIFFERENCE

1. ( (
   Humans recall past & anticipate and plan for the future 
2. Animals are stuck in the present--they are only of aware of what's going on now

Is that true? 

Does it matter ethically? Does it make human llfe better? Does it make human death worse?

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RECALLING PAST 

Other terms for it...

• autobiographical memory
• active recall
• episodic memory
• looking back
• time travel

Examples

1. recalling your high school graduation
2. writing a memoir, recalling events
3. using recall strategically
• looking for my car in Airline garage
• answering a quiz question
• deciding whether to eat leftovers in your fridge--when did you put them there?

Contrast with other kinds of memory (that animals obviously have)

1. I can ride a bike ... dog heels
2. Knowing where your car is ....Clark's nutcracker knows where the seeds are--Inside the Animal Mind I, 15:11-17:48- 

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EVIDENCE FOR RECALL IN ANIMALS 

Chimps

DeWaal p. 210:  when they're going to a fig tree they've visited before they get up early, walk in the dark(which they avoid), get upset about noisy walking. Most plausible explanation: they recall past visits to the fig tree.

Western scrub jays

Nicky Clayton's research (De Waal p. 211):   

 

 

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THINKING ABOUT PAST IN PETS?

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THINKING ABOUT FUTURE

Examples

• imagining what you'll be doing in 5 minutes, or an hour, or in 5 years or 50 years
• grabbing an umbrella because you think it will rain
• includes forethought, planning, anticipation

Contrast with other types of future orientation

• Squirrels hoarding nuts for the winter
• They're doing it "for the winter" (future) but are they thinking about the future?
• DeWaal (p. 215-16): behavior is just triggered by nuts + shortening of the day

How to prove that animal is thinking about future?

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SPOON TEST 

Girl takes to spoon to bed at night to prepare for pudding party the next day

    Two criteria  (p. 213): 

1.  "behavior should not follow directly from present needs and desires"
2. "it should prepare the individual for a future situation in a different context than the current one."

Chimps

Storing a tool today for use tomorrow

Crows

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ANOTHER SIGN: SELF-RESTRAINT

Hunting Cheetah

PBS, Big Cats ep. 2, 33:36

Candy-loving chimps (p. 225)

1. take now, dispenser stops adding candy
2. wait, dispenser adds more every 15 seconds  

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FUTURE THOUGHT IN PETS?

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QUIZ FEEDBACK

1. Comments on quiz plus key at Canvas
2. Over half answered question 1 (bible and Aristotle)--most did well on this
3. Lowest grades were on question 5--Carruthers
• make sure you read your comments on the RRs
• when studying, use blog/slides/notes
4. Ask yourself how many of the 5 questions you could have answered well
5. Take more notes, ask more questions

Animal morality

MORALITY IN ANIMALS?

Which ethicists care?

• Kant--in some passages he seems to say that our capacity for morality is part of what gives us inherent value; because they lack it, animals have no inherent value
• Singer, maybe--when he talks about the special value of human lives, morality might be a contributor

Which ethicists don't care?

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FRANS DE WAAL

• Our guide to animal minds.  Who he is.  
• US primate research centers -- Yerkes/Emory
• Are We Smart Enough to Understand How Smart Animals Are? (2016)
• As a primatologist, he uses a lot of examples involving primates
• Monkeys almost always have tails
• Apes don't have tails

  

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METHODOLOGY 

Ch.1, "Magic Wells"

1. AVOID ANTHROPOMORPHISM

• Anthropomorphism is...(glossary) "The (mis)attribution of humanlike characteristics and experiences to other species." 
• kissing apes vs. kissing fish
• laughing apes vs. laughing dolphins
• Should take into account evolutionary distance

2. AVOID ANTHROPODENIAL

• Anthropodenial is ..... "The a priori rejection of humanlike traits in other animals or animalilke traits in us." (p. 25)

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MORALITY IN ANIMALS?

Two theories

1. Morality is something entirely new in humans, there's nothing like in in animals
2. There are rudiments/precursors of morality in animals; human morality evolved from these precursors (this is DeWaal's view)

What are thes rudiments/precursors of morality in animals?

1. Perspective taking (p. 129)
2. Targeted helping--"Assistance based on an appreciation of the other's precise circumstances." (p. 133--p. 137) 
• chimps will try to get humans to give them a banana outside their enclosure--will point if humans can see them--will make noise if humans can't see them
3. Cooperation 
•  the cooperative pulling paradigm (p. 187)
• teamwork in other animals (p. 190-191)--whales, orcas, lions, wolves, wild dogs, Harris's hawks, capuchin monkeys, chimpanzees
4. Empathy
5. Reciprocity & Fairness

Animal pleasure

ANNOUNCEMENTS

1. No office hours today
2. Field trips--see changes
3. Frans DeWaal book next time

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 PAIN

1. Mammals
2. Birds
3. Fish
4. Invertebrates: crabs, lobsters, octopuses
5. Insects

Just about all animals have nociceptors, but do they feel pain? And if so, does their pain feel like our pain?

Some are skeptical becasue of brain differences.

FISH--DIFFERENT BRAIN ANATOMY

OTHER MAMMALS--SMALLER PREFRONTAL CORTEX

• cattle accident
• pain vs. other types of distress

CEPHALOPODS AND CRUSTACEANS--DECENTRALIZED NERVOUS SYSTEMS

The Octopus Mind--Peter Godfrey Smith

INSECTS--VERY SMALL BRAINS

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PLEASURE

Does it matters, ethically?

1. Utilitarians...but they tend to focus on pain
• Bentham: "Can they suffer?"
• Singer: pain and pleasure are basis for interests
2. Common sense--
• wrong to unnecessarily prevent pleasure
• zoos, how we care for pets

Much more research on pain than on pleasure

• Jonathan Balcombe trying to rectify that situation

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DO ANIMALS HAVE PLEASURE?

Pleasure vs. pain

1. Seem analogous, but in some ways not
2. Nociceptors lead to pain experience, but there are no specialized pleasure receptors
3. In humans: sensations from any sense can cause pleasure
4. The chemistry of pleasure: dopamine, endogenous opioids, endorphins

RR8--is the evidence for pleasure just as strong as the evidence for pain in animals?

"In the case of physical pain at least, if an animal has the equipment to experience it, then she is also probably equipped to experience pleasure." (Balcombe p. 19)

"If there is one most crucial reason why feeling good should not be the sole domain of Homo sapiens, it is this: pleasure is adaptive. Feeling good is a powerful motivator that steers animals toward behaviors that keep them alive and help them reproduce. Contrary to popular myth, life in the wild is not relentlessly harsh; survival and pleasure are mutually compatible." (p. 21-22)

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THIS SURE LOOKS LIKE PLEASURE

Inside the Animal Mind part 2, 12-18:50 (tab at top of page)

 

Animal pain

 QUIZ REVIEW

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MODULE 2 -- Minds of animals--because of significance for ethics

1. pain
2. pleasure
3. morality
4. self-awareness
5. awareness of past and future
6. death

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PAIN 

1. What do we mean by pain?
• the ouch sensation
• not pain: fear, depression, anxiety
2. From what ethical perspectives does pain matter?
• Peter Singer, Jeremy Bentham
• But others as well

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ANIMAL PAIN QUESTIONS

Ed Yong, Am Immense World

• He's a science journalist
• A book about animal senses
• "Pain: The Unwanted Sense"

1. Which animals experience pain? 
2. Does their pain experience feel like ours?

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 NOCICEPTION VS. PAIN EXPERIENCE

(Yong, p. 120-124)

1. nociceptors--peripheral neurons that repond to damage; in skin, many areas of body--almost all animals have them
2. pain experience--in the brain

Nociception without pain experience

1. you reflexively withdraw hand from heat before it starts hurting
2. capsaicin in hot peppers stimulating nociceptors in mouth, but no feeling of pain
3. body damaged while you're focused on playing a sport

Pain experience without nociception

1. amputee still feels pain in foot

Ethically, what matters? Nociception or pain experience?

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HUMAN PAIN

(not in Yong)

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MAMMALS & BIRDS

1. He only discusses the naked mole rat
2. Livestock important for us, so we will come back to this

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DO FISH FEEL PAIN?

Lynne Sneddon, Victoria Braithwaite (Can Fish Feel Pain?)

1. nociceptors (22 in face alone) -- trout dissected
2. pathways to brain -- dissection, study under microscope, electrical stimulation
3. after vinegar/bee venom injection 
• they rub snout on gravel on sides of tank
• elevated heart rate and respiration and reduced hunger 
• altered behaviors -- examples in Yong
• they seek painkillers
• morphine changes these behaviors
4. But a very different brain--does that matter? (some say yes)

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INVERTEBRATES

CRUSTACEANS

• hermit crabs, lobsters
• experiment
• lobster nervous system

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PHILOSOPHICAL QUESTION

Yong, p. 129--Why would animals evolve to have BOTH nociception AND pain experience? What's the value of the pain experience? It takes extra brain components to have pain experience. Isn't it wasteful? "What's the adaptive value of suffering?"

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CEPHALOPODS

• squid--more sensitive all over after injury
• octopus--will break off part of limb that's injury and then tend the wound